Ultraconservative Christian New Tribes linked to Pat Robertson (Venezuela)

[joefree1]

Ultraconservative Christian fundamentalist New Tribes linked to Pat Robertson

Published: Thursday, October 20, 2005
Bylined to: Prensa Latina

Prensa Latina: Cinematographer Carlos Azpura, director of a documentary about the exploitation of the Venezuelan indigenous, has strenuously supported the expulsion of US fundamentalist New Tribes, and has made new accusations against them.

Azpura stated that during his research for the film he found out that New Tribes was financed by US General Dynamics and Westinghouse corporations and numerous engineers and geologists entered Venezuela undercover of the missions to study the soils in the fragile and remote region.

He strongly supported the President's expulsion order for New Tribes, accused of spying for Washington, saying it was an issue of Venezuelan sovereignty and they are distorting the ideology and orientation of generations of indigenous.

This week the defender of indigenous peoples, Candy Bejarano, denounced that New Tribes affected the culture and economy of the native peoples, while anthropologist Emilio Mosonyi went further, asserting that these missions are eliminating the indigenous.
more ...
http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=46446

In a related article ...

US rejects Chavez missionary spy charges
Fri Oct 14, 2005 4:53 PM ET
CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - The United States on Friday rejected charges by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez that members of a U.S. evangelist group were working as spies and urged authorities to start talks with the missionaries.
Chavez this week ordered the U.S.-based New Tribes Mission expelled from Venezuela after accusing its members of working with the CIA and engaging in "imperialist" infiltration in his latest barrage against the United States.
"I can categorically deny that," U.S. Ambassador to Caracas William Brownfield told reporters when asked about the spy charges. "I still hope we can have direct talks between the mission and the government to resolve their differences."
Chavez's announcement came just days after conservative U.S. preacher Pat Robertson attacked the left-wing Venezuelan leader for the second time this year by accusing him of funding Osama Bin Laden and seeking atomic material from Iran.
more ...
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2005-10-14T205318Z_01_YUE475183_RTRUKOC_0_US-VENEZUELA-MISSIONARIES.xml&archived=False


http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PaganWarrior/

[HereSince1628]

1. Whoa, New Tribes has a training facility in Waukesha, WI

I'm surprised to see the local fundies in the news.

[brentspeak]

2. This is from the Venezualen version of Fox News

[psychopomp]

3. That is strange because you usually don't hear FOX talk about corporate

connections to religious groups.

Chavez is correct in his assessment that the US has Venezuela in its crosshairs. What with Columbia's right-wing paramilitaries operating with US monetary and military support the Venezualan border has doubtless been crossed many times by agents sent to hasten the downfall of the Chavez government.

[joefree1]

5. I doubt Faux News would agree with this web site about New Tribes either

New Tribes Mission
The New Tribes Mission (NTM), set up in 1942, is one of many fundamentalist christian missions that is trying to peddle its message to vulnerable groups, in this case the remaining tribal peoples of the world. It sets itself the ambitious and frightening target of continuing with this "until the last tribe is reached". It is active in nineteen countries
The role of a missionary is to infiltrate a tribe, and convince or coerce them into rejecting their own indigenous spiritual beliefs in favour of the christian church. Many times much more than this is lost, as people are 'educated' by missionaries, or missionary activity is the harbinger of further economic development Indigenous people find themselves suddenly brought in to the global economy with a bump, totally exploitable and the bottom of a pile. What's more, the people who are targetted are certainly those who are living in the most ecological manner possible, and where they do not face problems from other development projects, are also the most free.

The work of missionaries has since the start of the colonial era been as an initial subjugating force to herald the arrival of civilisation, and this continues to be the case today, as ideologially-charged missionaries raid the world's remaining ecological frontiers in search of new blood.
edit ...
Meanwhile in the Philippines, one of the countries where NTM is most active, Stefan Keulig of Friends of People Close to Nature found on a return visit last year that "...the last group of people on the island who had lived untouched for millennia, have now almost lost their culture, the Taut Batu. Only years ago a large part of the group lived their traditional way in their caves in the southern part of Palawan. But the efforts of the American-Christian Mission " New Tribal Mission" had the result that the groups were forced into settlements, they were taught to build houses, to practice kaingin and to work. Today most of those independent "Cave-people" have to earn their living through the producation of mats made of rattan to be able to participate in the 'blessings' of civilisation like clothing, industrial sugar and industrial white rice."

edit ...
In Paraguay, the NTM acted in collusion with the dictator Stroessner, for who the policy of settlement camps and conversion fitted in nicely with his plans for opening up the forest to mining and logging interests.

The NTM are also accused of killing many more people, for example the Ayoreo, also of Paraguay, by bringing western diseases into the area. They are also not deterred even by government rulings; in 1998 the Brazilian Association of Anthropology exposed the fact that the NTM were trying to re-establish their reservation for the Zo'E indians, which was closed down by the Brazilian state seven years previously because it emerged that 40 people had died from respiritory diseases, and the NTM's policy of keeping people at the camp by distributing industrialised goods had increased dependancy on these products.
more ...
http://www.eco-action.org/mission/ntm.html

[NVMojo]

4. fuck, the USA is a morally bankrupt nation ...

[tanyev]

6. So that's why Pat wants him assassinated.

[elehhhhna]

7. Surprise surprise. Missionaries with a hidden agenda? NO WAY!

Who'da thunk it?